On \(L\)-functions of certain exponential sums (Q2637321)

Let \({\mathbb F}_{q}\) be the finite field with \(q\) elements of characteristic \(p\), \({\mathbb F}_{q}^{k}\) its extension of degree \(k\), \[ \begin{multlined} f(x_{1}, \ldots ,x_{n+1})=\\ a_{1}x_{n+1} \left( x_{1}+\frac{1}{x_{1}} \right)+ \cdots + a_{n}x_{n+1} \left(x_{n} + \frac{1}{x_{n}} \right)+a_{n+1}x_{n+1}+ \frac{1}{x_{n+1}} \end{multlined} \] a Laurent polynomial with coefficients in \({ \mathbb F}_{q}^{*}\), and \[ S_{k}^{*}(f)= \sum_{x_{1}, \ldots, x_{n+1} \in { \mathbb F}_{q^{k}}^{*}} \zeta_{p}^{Tr_{k}f(x_{1}, \ldots,x_{n+1})}, \] where \( \zeta = \exp{2\pi i/p}\) is the fixed primitive complex \(p\)-th root of \(1\) and \(Tr_{k}\) denotes the trace map from \({\mathbb F}_{k}\) to \({\mathbb F}_{p}\). To understand the sequence \(S_{k}^{*}(f) \in { \mathbb Q} ( \zeta_{p})\), \(k=1,2,3, \ldots \), of algebraic integers, the authors study the \(L\)-function associaned to \(S_{k}^{*}(f)\) \[ L^{*}(f,T)= \exp \left( \sum_{r=1}^{ \infty} S_{k}^{*}(f) \frac{T^{k}}{k} \right) . \tag{1} \] By the theorem of \textit{A. Adolphson} and \textit{S. Sperber} [Ann. Math. (2) 130, No. 2, 367--406 (1989; Zbl 0723.14017)], the \(L\)-function \(L^{*}(f,T)^{(-1)^{n}}\) for non-degenerate \(f(x_{1},x_{2}, \ldots,x_{n+1})\) is a polynomial of degree \((n+1)! \text{Vol} ( \Delta)\), where \( \Delta= \delta(f)\) is the Newton polyhedron of \(f\). Later, it was shown by S. Denef and F. Loeser that if the origin is an interior point of the Newton polyhedron then \[ L^{*}(f,T)^{(-1)^{n}}= \prod_{i=1}^{(n+1){!} \text{vol}( \Delta(f))} (1- \alpha_{i}T) \] with the complex absolute value \(| \alpha_{i}|=q^{(n+1)/2}\). On the other hand, it is known that for each \(l\)-adic absolute value \(| \cdot |_{l}\) with prime \(l \neq p\), the reciprocial zeros \( \alpha_{i}\) are \(l\)-adic units: \(| \alpha_{i}|_{l}=1\). In the present paper the authors study the \(p\)-adic slopes of the reciprocal zeros of \(L^{*}(f, T)^{(-1)^{n}}\). Using the decomposition theory of Wan, the authors determine the generic Newton polygon (q-adic values of the reprocial zeros) of the function \(L^{*}\). This gives a possibility to determine the number of reciprocal zeros of \(L^{*}(f, T)^{(-1)^{n}}\) for the remaining primes \(p\) and find their number.